Surface Mount Component questions

[D Wagner]

How hard is it to solder surface mount components on a single or double-sided board?  Does it take a special angled tip, or will a standard pencil tip work?  I have the double-sided board etching down, so that is not a problem.

I often see surface mount components on E-bay for great prices, and have considered picking up some stuff if I thought it was do-able.  

Any pointers for a SMD novice?  FWIW, my soldering skills are very good for standard components.

Thanks in advance,

Derek

[javacody]

I'm curious about this as well.

[sfr]

aimed at the DIY robotics crowd, but I found this link interesting when I ran across it a while ago:

http://www.robotroom.com/PCB3.html

I had a link somewhere about DIY quasi-"wave" soldering with an old toaster oven, but I can't find it now . . .

[Johan]

I often solder smd components with a regular Weller 2,4mm tip at work. you need a tweeser to hold them and you need to be fast. becourse of the small size they are more sencitive to overheating but otherwise just smaller, so just go ahead and try.   If you're good with the iron, there is no reason it wouldnt work for you....and oh..solder flux on spraycan helps....makes it go faster too...

Johan

[D Wagner]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the info.  I probably need to do a Google search on SMD construction, and then just jump into it.  The parts are cheap enough, that if I make a mistake, it is no big loss.  Besides, I got some free amplifier chips (Maxim samples) that I can experiment with.

R.G. keen mentioned using a piece of wire around the tip of the soldering iron, bent for ease of use, to solder surface mount components.  That may be the way to go.

I know the "toaster oven" article that you are talking about.  It was titled, "Hey Ma, look at my new soldering iron".  It showed a robot controller being constructed using solder paste and a toaster oven.  Way cool, but it wouldn't work for two sided boards.

Thanks again!

Derek

[D Wagner]

http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/200006/oven_art.htm

[Mike Burgundy]

It's very possible but a real pain. A regular thin tip works, although I prefer a tiny flat wedge tip (say 1mmx0.5 or something).
The best way is to do it in a toaster with special solder paste, which is minute microscopic balls of solder suspended in flux.
The paste is best used in a syringe (which it is also often sold in) for easy application of small droplets/dabs on the places on the pcb to be soldered. You then push the components into the paste, and move on to the oven.
It is critical to get the PCB design nice and tight; this ensures good positioning of the parts (which they actually do themselves while floating on liquid solder.
This might be the link:
http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/200006/oven_art.htm

I've done a few of these, so if you run into trouble or need more info let me know.

Edit:
I need to learn to type faster

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Someone once said about Kylie Monogue "She's just like a real woman, but smaller." Well it is the same for surface mount. Seriously.
The one thing is, you need tweezers or something to hold the parts in place whie you solder, they have almost no mass! Plus if you drop it, it's GONE.
Quantitatively & qualitatively, it is no different from ging from tubes to chips.
There are 2 different reasons to go SMT, one is if you need the space (not an issue for me) or if the chips you use are only available in SMT. At last, there are a number of companies doing little SMT adaptor boards. Nuts&Volts mag has ads.